


Like Warriors

by psocoptera



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Haiku, M/M, Sozin's Comet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-11 00:53:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psocoptera/pseuds/psocoptera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sokka and Zuko face the end like warriors: with poetry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Warriors

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in/around "The Phoenix King", the first part of the Sozin's Comet finale.
> 
> For Chaos, several years overdue.

Zuko is picturing the Earth Kingdom burning. All the places he had seen, and all the places he would never see.

"I think we should face the end like warriors," Sokka says. "With poetry!"

Zuko doesn't answer, and pointedly looks away. This might be the one time in three that ignoring him works.

"So here's what I've got. 'Harbinger of doom'," Sokka says thoughtfully. "'Bringing fiery death to all. Can no one save us?'"

Zuko glares at him.

"I see what you mean," Sokka says, stroking his chin, "Is fiery two or three? Maybe... flaming. 'Bringing flaming death to all.' I think you're right. 'Harbinger of doom -'" he starts again.

"That's terrible."

"Oh, you hurt me!" Sokka says. Far from insulted, he looks delighted to have gotten Zuko to take the bait. "Tell me, in your exalted opinion - "

"You don't write a poem about the _comet_ ," Zuko says in disgust. If Sokka isn't going to leave him alone, he might as well teach him something. "Maybe these are your last words, and you're going to use them to immortalize the comet?"

"No?" Sokka guesses.

"You think of something you want to remember, make the poem about that."

"Ah, like a mnemonic," Sokka nods. "Right over left and - "

" _No_ ," Zuko says. "Like." He thinks for a moment. "'The steel of her needle creates the meaning of the silk of her hair.'"

Sokka blinks at him. "Wow, that's - you came up with that just now?"

"No," Zuko admits, "Awhile ago. I - had some time."

Sokka snorts agreeably, like, "you sure did, buddy", which is still surreal, when he thinks about it. Zuko isn't sure what to say next. "So - like that," he says lamely.

Then Sokka's face falls. "We are not long on time. At this time."

Zuko shrugs. "It didn't take _that_ long."

"But - "

"I'll do one too, okay?" He shuts his eyes to think for a moment. The first thing that springs to mind is the Firelight Fountain in Ba Sing Se. He sorts through words quickly.

"'Eyes close, lanterns light, look fast: close them again and darkness forever.'"

"Whoa, gloomy much?" Sokka says.

"You're the one to talk, flaming death. It was - about a thing. At a place."

"With a person?" Sokka says knowingly.

"Something like that," Zuko says. "You got something better?"

"No," Sokka says, looking down. "What if I came up with the world's best haiku ever, here, tonight? I can't exactly engrave it in stone, or even write a nice scroll."

"Paper isn't any more permanent than breath," Zuko says, "It just takes longer to burn."

"Thus the stone?" His "gotcha" look.

"You've heard of lava?" Zuko shoots back. "Look, you say the words, they're said, they'll always have been said."

"But if nobody else ever hears them - "

"Maybe sometimes, if you say something and it doesn't change anything, that's not the worst thing that can happen," Zuko says. He makes himself take a deep breath.

"Okay," Sokka says. He takes a deep breath too. "'Lychee man: under that rough rind, secretly sweet. I think we should - '" He stops, one syllable shy.

Zuko can think of any number of syllables that could go there. Sokka is biting his lip, which makes some of them seem more likely than others. But - "Did you just call me a fruit?"

"Do you _want_ me to have called you a fruit?" Sokka parries.

"No," Zuko says immediately, and Sokka facepalms and mutters something. Zuko thinks it might be "come on, comet".

"But I don't mind," he adds quickly, and Sokka peeks between his fingers. "Must be my secretly sweet interior," and Sokka laughs.

"You sound kind of stuck on the end," Zuko goes on, and Sokka takes his hand away from his face entirely, so that Zuko can reach out and grasp it.

Sokka grins at him. "Well," he says. "I do have a few ideas."

And he does.


End file.
